Thots of an avid cricket lover on sports, entertainment and current affairs

Eden’s loss is Bangalore’s gain but what about the fans?

Another major event in India and we have yet another controversy. This time it is the cricket world cup. ICC recently conducted their review of the stadiums hosting world cup games and found that Eden Gardens, Kolkata was not up to the mark. They snatched the India-England game which was scheduled to take place there on the 27th of this month and are contemplating taking away the other games too. This is really a shame on the part of both the CAB (Cricket Association of Bengal) and BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India).

All the stadiums had ample time to prepare for the world cup. It’s not as if the venues were decided at the last minute. The tier 1 test grounds in India hardly get international games, so there is no reason for them to fall behind the schedule. Apart from the IPL, the only International game I can think of last year was the test match between India and South Africa in Feb 2010. Surely money cannot be the issue either considering the wealth the BCCI has at their disposal. So what can be the reason for this debacle? It’s for sure the mismanagement of the Indian administrators. I am not sure when the administrators will realize that such mismanagement affects the pride of the country overall.

When ICC (International Cricket Council) said that Eden was not up to scratch, BCCI was immediate in washing their hands of the matter. The BCCI said that they should not be blamed for this scenario. It’s very strange that the cricket board of a country in which a mega event is about to take place make such a statement. But BCCI for sure had the guts to ask ICC to provide an extension, why would they do so? The World Cup was about to begin in 2 weeks and if the stadium wasn’t ready, it deserved to be pulled out.

Bangalore was finally announced as the venue for the India-England game and the decision is still pending on the rest of the games. I just feel sad for the cricket fans of Bengal as they would be really disappointed to miss out on a high profile clash. The cricket fans of Bengal are one of the most passionate followers of the game. Eden Gardens might not be the best stadium in India but is a very historic and high profile venue and it is a shame that they would not be hosting the games if the ICC decides to pull out the rest of the games too. The CAB and the BCCI are to be blamed collectively for this oversight. Even though the games will go on and the ICC or the BCCI would not lose their sleep over the change of venue, the only loss will be of the fans. I don’t think the BCCI or the CAB cares about them anyways.

It’s great for Bangalore though as they have gotten another big game in their kitty but again, the only people to suffer as always are the fans.

Nice article, but the Eden fiasco brought a few questions to the mind of Cricket lovers. Typically only those would pose these questions are the ones who got deprived of seeing the match in Eden Gardens. It is understandable that Bengal’s loss is Karnataka’s gain and people of Bengaluru would rather welcome such incidents. But the question is what exactly transpired between ICC and CAB? Who is hosting the world cup ICC or BCCI? If BCCI is in charge then why can not they have their saying in putting up credibility behind organizing a match? In this case clearly BCCI backed CAB for an extension. You can point out delay and other clauses but should the yard stick of preparedness be different for different venues! Because almost all the venues got extension other than Eden and Wankhede outfield is not ready yet, but since this is Pawar’s den it seems he can get away with a kill! Now I am not an ardent fan of Dalmiya but it seems what happened in Eden is clearly motivated by politics of revenge between Pawar and Dalmiya and mind it that it was Mr Dalmiya who as the head of BCCI nurtured the market of Indian cricket in Asia and abroad! It was Mr Dalmiya who as the head of ICC took initiative to make cricket popular in untested territories like South Africa and Kenya. As for Mr Lorgat and co we have only seen worse like killing Mr Bob Wolmar and letting its killers go scot free! Like taking no action what so ever against betting syndicates and now depriving the best cricketing ground in Asia of a Indian world cup match for a petty revenge!